Land tussle: Kpaduma natives petition Minister, IGP, others over ‘harassment’

Residents of Kpaduma community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, the FCT Minister, Chief of Army Staff, the State Security Service (SSS) and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) over what they described as harassment by land developers.

The natives also urged the security agencies to warn the developers to stay away from their community land, pending the determination of the case between the community and the FCT administration in court.
The leaders of the community who held an emergency meeting “on the continuous harassment and intimidation from developers, made this call in a three-page resolution which they forwarded to and made available to journalists.
The Natives also vowed to resist any allocation within the centre of their ancestral homes and environs.
In the resolution signed by Hon. Bala Iyah, Majin Dadi of Kpaduma communities, Simon Baba, Secretary General of the communities and Dantani Bawa, Community youth leader, made available to Blueprint, the natives stated that they have never been compensated by the Federal Capital Development Authourity (FCDA), therefore, they will not tolerate any group of persons, organisation and individual who would want to intimidate them and forcefully takeover their land.
“Kpaduma communities hereby inform all developers to stop parading, harassing and intimidating our people with armed security personnel, as we are not and will never be ready for settlement with any individual, organization or developers. We are Nigerians and we deserve to be treated equally as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution as amended.
“We want to state clearly that even if the allocation papers given to any developer is revoked or not, we will not allow anybody to take possession of our community land without the settlement from the government. Enough is enough.
“We also want to draw the attention of the security agencies that the issue between Kpaduma communities and land developers is not and can never be a security threat nor be treated as criminal issue. It is purely a civil matter that can be addressed and settled in the civil court of law.
“So, the security agencies should not be misled hence forth by the developers as our communities have vowed to protect our ancestral homes. The continuous harassment towards the peace-loving people of Kpaduma communities by the Nigerian Police, Army and the NSCDC is unfair,” the natives stated.

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